During the ‘Sunset Boulevard’ musical obsession that dominated my life in the mid 1990’s, one of the shows that I attended had the stalwart Alan Campbell (another Alan who spells his name correctly) out and his understudy in – and that was the night I became fully aware of Bryan Batt and his brilliance. He took the role of Joe Gillis and made it his own – not an easy feat given how accustomed many of us had become to Mr. Campbell. Batt matched the ferocious but fragile performance of his leading lady Betty Buckley to create an evening of musical theater magic.
A few years later, I was at a Sunday brunch in the South End of Boston and noticed Batt at a nearby table; to my regret and shame, I was too shy and socially anxious to approach him and offer my accolades on that ‘Sunset’ performance, so all these years later this is my small way of making up for that.
He’s carved out an impressive theatrical resume – highlights of which include the aforementioned ‘Sunset’ run, a scene-chomping turn in ‘Jeffrey’, a suave, smarmy, and poignantly nuanced role on ‘Mad Men‘ (a role which should have gone on for far longer than it did), and several other Broadway behemoths such as ‘Cats’, ‘Starlight Express’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel‘, and ‘Saturday Night Fever’. A true Renaissance man who dabbles in all forms of beauty and art, Batt and his husband own a home furnishings and gift store, Hazelnut, that is on my bucket list to visit in New Orleans. He’s also written two books, ‘She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother: A Memoir’ and ‘Big Easy Style’. Taken together, it’s more than an honor to name him as Dazzler of the Day.
